Joel on Software - “Martian
Headsets” - Fortune

Joel on Software - “Martian
Headsets”

You’re about to see the mother of all flamewars on internet
groups where web developers hang out. It’ll make the Battle of
Stalingrad look like that time your sister-in-law stormed out of
afternoon tea at your grandmother’s and wrapped the Mustang around
a tree.

This upcoming battle will be presided over by Dean Hachamovitch,
the Microsoft veteran currently running the team that’s going to
bring you the next version of Internet Explorer, 8.0. The IE 8 team
is in the process of making a decision that lies perfectly,
exactly, precisely on the fault line smack in the middle of two
different ways of looking at the world. It’s the difference between
conservatives and liberals, it’s the difference between “idealists”
and “realists,” it’s a huge global jihad dividing members of the
same family, engineers against computer scientists, and Lexuses vs.
olive trees.

And there’s no solution. But it will be really, really
entertaining to watch, because 99% of the participants in the flame
wars are not going to understand what they’re talking about. It’s
not just entertainment: it’s required reading for every developer
who needs to design interoperable systems.